The Lantian people site is a Paleolithic cultural relic, located in Gongwangling and Chenjiawo, Lantian County, southeast of Xi'an. In the 1960s, an elderly female mandible fossil was found in Chenjiawo Village, followed by an incomplete fossil of a middle-aged female skull in the calcareous tuberculosis soil at the bottom of the Laterite soil of Gongwangling. It is determined that the fossils of ancient humans found in Gongwangling are about 1.1 million to 1.15 million years old. It belongs to the early Quaternary Pleistocene.
After indoor restoration of this skull fossil, a complete fossil of the ape human skull was restored. The original researchers grouped Chen Jiawo's mandible and Gongwangling's skull together and named it "Lantian Chinese Ape Man", referred to as "Lantian Ape Man" or "Lantian Man". However, many scholars believe that the degree of primitiveness shown by these two specimens is obviously different, and the era of the two sites is divided into successive points, and it is suggested that a new species of "Lantian people" be established for the skull of Gongwangling, and the scientific name of "Homo erectus Chen Jiawo subspecies" should be given to the mandible of Chen Jiawo, which can also be called "Chen Jiawo people".
Lantian County is in the southeast of Xi'an City, with many cultural monuments, beautiful mountains and clear waters, and beautiful natural scenery. Ancient ape people lived in the Loess Ridge area 1.15 million years ago. Although this is a historical period that is impossible to intuitively read, from the various indications: human beings can develop and grow here with a unique geographical advantage, and they have always lived with nature and prospered and declined.
The Lantian Mountains and rivers are magnificent, the scenery is excellent, and it is a tempting cornucopia. When people are stripped out of the apes, they choose the Bahe River system with superior environment, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces a water, with a warm climate, abundant water and grass, lush forests, a variety of land and forest animals, and abundant aquatic products. Hunting and fishing conditions are in place, and there is a complete food chain.
Therefore, in the Blue Field Formation, there are rich animal fossils of various eras and information on the changes in the earth's climate and environment. From unearthed paleontological fossils to paleoanthropologists more than a million years ago, Lantian offers a vast place for geologists, paleontologists, archaeologists and anthropologists.
After the researchers conducted research and analysis of the fossils of the Gongwangling fauna, they were found to have strong characteristics of the genus "Southern Animal Species".
More than a dozen kinds of mammal fossils have also been found in Chenjiawo, most of which are found in Gongwangling, but there are also late Pleistocene animals, and molluscs basically still live in the "North China animal species" class. The fact that fauna is so different also reflects the chronological inconsistency between the two paleoanthropological sites in Lantian. This is also an important basis for scholars to believe that the era of "Chen Jiawo people" was later than that of Gongwangling, and roughly equivalent to that of "Beijing people".
Human mandibular fossils found in Chen Jiawo belong to the Middle Pleistocene. It is 500,000 to 650,000 years old, equivalent to the early days of The Ape Man culture in Beijing. The human skull fossil bone wall excavated from Gongwangling is extremely thick, the brow ridge is thick, almost forming a straight transverse ridge, and extends significantly outward, the frontal bone is very low and flat, and the brain volume is estimated at 780 ml, showing that the Blue Field Ape Man has obvious primitiveness.
Stone tools used by Paleolithic humans have also been excavated in the Gongwangling soil layer. These stone products belong to the cultural relics of the Lantian Ape Man, mainly including stone cores, stone chips, smashers, scrapers, large sharpeners and stone balls. In addition, several ash and charcoal chips have been found in the Gongwangling fossil layer.
"Lantian people" once referred to the early Paleolithic Homo erectus fossils found in Gongwangling and Chenjiawo in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, China.
Archaeologists have shown that the Lantian people have a low and wide forehead, a thick and raised brow bone, a thick bone wall, a slightly square orbit, and an anterior extension of the mouth. It is a middle Pleistocene early human fossil that is of great significance for the exploration and investigation of human origins. The fossils of ancient humans here are more primitive than those of the Peking people. Dating from about 750,000 to 1.15 million years old, it is one of the earliest human fossils found north of the Yangtze River in China. Not only proves that China is one of the birthplaces of human beings, refutes the error of Chinese kind of "external speaking", but also has great academic value, the discovery of Lantian ape man expands the distribution range of known Chinese ape man, increases the distribution point of the world ape man fossil, enriches the human material culture record, and also provides an important evidence for the development of ancient culture in the Yellow River Basin
The site of the Lantian people is of great archaeological research value due to its ancient age. It is the oldest upright human found in northern Asia to date.